Canada has elected a Conservative Prime Minister. The Tories are winning a plurality, though not a majority, of seats in the House of Commons. Canada's Conservatives utterly imploded as a political party in the 1990s, and today's results represent a terrific comeback, and an enormous success for Stephen Harper - now Canada's Prime Minister apparent, the leader of the reconstituted Tories.

More, much more, from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp (or here if you'd prefer the news in French), and from the indispensable Captain's Quarters -- the American blog that was instrumental in keeping the spotlight on the Liberal Party scandals which paved the way for today's Conservative victory.

The question of the hour: What are Herb and Joey's thoughts about all this?

UPDATE: It's a narrow win for the reconstituted Tories, but a decisive defeat for Paul Martin's scandal-ridden, ever-so-politically-correct Liberals. (Canada's four-party system complicates the Liberal-Tory face-off...) Said one newly-elected Conservative: "Canadians decided that they wanted a change, but they want to take the Conservatives for a test drive, and we're happy with that".

The results in Canada happily echo the recent German election where relations with the US are concerned: the more anti-American candidates (Martin, Schroeder) went down to defeat. A good day for Canada, and for Canadian-US friendship; and another bad day for the world's down-with-America/hate-Bush left!